For the study, researchers worked with 207 third grade students with and without math difficulties to see how working memory influenced their abilities to solve word problems.

A Missouri school district is now making its math curriculum more gender inclusive, updating word problems and other language-based math equations with "they/them" pronouns.

The intervention proved to boost comprehension and help students synthesize and visualize information, which improved the students' math world problem-solving skills.

Story problems can help young learners grasp math concepts, but teachers must design and scaffold them carefully.